Blog 4: When the student is ready the teacher will appear...

I have heard to above quote several times before and the concept honestly along with much of my philosophy towards life helps me feel at ease during any time of internal or external struggle. When I think back, for myself, much of what I now believe to be true about how life unfolds I picked up through conscious effort to understand and become more aware of myself and my world around me.

Certainly my profession, chiropractic, and its focus on the Intelligence within all of us and our Universe has been a huge catalyst for this.

So this past weekend, as I was flying with Jack and he fell asleep, I picked up his Thomas-the-train headphones and plugged them in and picked a movie. For some reason I have been in a rhythm of reading famous women’s autobiographies and so I picked to watch Jane Fonda’s documentary on her life. I think I cried more then I have in a year or two. It was a very clearing 2 hours for me as she discussed alot about her feelings towards her mom and her family relationships.

Some of you who know me well, know my mother has had very poor mental health the past 2.5 years. Learning to accept her in this new and quite different state, learning how to accept myself and how to exist in this new relationship with her (where many times I can focus on what I perceive as her immense absence) and find new joy and new life has proved to be a very challenging teacher.

However, when I can stop back and take a bird’s eye view, above the struggle I can see my mother has been my greatest teacher. This current lesson, though not wanted and guttural at times, has caused me to do more soul searching more self discovery and also a HUGE lesson in letting go. Letting go of control of anyone but yourself. Letting go to “how” things should be. And on and on.

This teacher has given me lessons on moving on to the next stage, letting things evolve. I believe most of us prickle up against some of our biggest opportunities to learn because it may come in unexpected ways. There is no manual that can navigate this for us; but again I do believe, we are given what we are able to handle.

This leads me to the above, when the student is ready - the teacher will appear. You are always ready. AS we go through these experiences it is helpful to remember depending on your perspective you can find joy.

For me in this phase of witnessing turmoil in my mother and turmoil in myself; I also can feel happiness for so much else around me, and see the gifts she has brought to me by experiencing my relationship with her. There are many. Probably the biggest is learning to let go. Hold space for new possibilities. Choose love.